Dew Tour San Francisco Event Wrap Up: Skate

Dew Tour returned to San Francisco last week for the Toyota City Championships. For the second consecutive year, Dew Tour dropped courses into the heart of San Francisco's Civic Center. To show the rich history of action sports in SF, the Skate Street course incorporated iconic SF spots like Hubba Hideout and the China Banks. Sunday, the Dew Tour Streetstyle course worked its way down three blocks of San Francisco's famous hills.

In addition to the action-packed weekend of skateboarding, the Dew Tour Experience allowed fans the chance to meet their favorite pros, buy merchandise and on Community Day fans even had the chance to skate the iconic street course themselves. Dew Tour stepped things up this year bringing the best atheltes and vendors to SF for all of their loyal skate fans. Read on below to get a glimpse of everything that went down and be sure to click through to read more on each of the events for more details, photos and video recaps of the sessions!

On a course full of replicated San Francisco skate spots, including Hubba Hideout and the China Banks, skaters have access to the best hubba ledges and rails the city has to offer. The 10 skaters who proceeded from the semi-final returned to give it their all in an effort to make the top five and advanced into the Final Round 2, aka the Super Final, where athletes had another five-minute jam followed by a two-minute open jam on the big hubba and stairs.

After taking first in prelims and second in the semi-final, Kelvin Hoefler was coming in hot to the Skate Street Final. His confidence shown in his backside nose blunt across the top of the picnic table and a nollie frontside nose slide down the big hubba. After a round of bangers from the ten skaters in the final, five advanced to the Super Final. Louie Lopez, Ryan Decenzo, Sean Malto, Kelvin Hoefler and Chaz Ortiz threw everything they had in the final minutes of the competition.

It was rookie, Louie Lopez, who would take the win in his Dew Tour debut. The judges weren't the only ones impressed with Lopez's skating that day, "I had this strange feeling that Louie was going to kill it," said Ryan Decenzo who skated out in third overall.

Lopez skated effortlessly with tricks like front a bluntside down the huge hubba as well as frontside and half cab flips down the stairs.

“There was definitely some pressure, but I didn’t really think about it too much – it’s just unnecessary stress,” said Lopez once it was all over. The humble Lopez went on to speak to the rest of the talent in the super final, “Pshh, man all of those guys were going off! Malto is my favorite, though. Malto’s the man!”

During the Skate Streetstyle Final, athletes kept muttering the same word to describe the course—terrifying. With a downhill, three-block course filled with obstacles like a massive container that drops off to a Toyota car as a landing pad, it is no reason why skaters were worried. Making it down the course is a feat in itself. Despite the obvious obstacles, the 16 skaters showed little signs of intimidation, as they charged down the course throwing unbelievable tricks.

By the time it came to the final run of the day, Ryan Sheckler had already laid down the highest score on the course and was left with a victory lap – the same situation as last year. In Sheckler’s first run he threw everything from a backside 360 off the top kicker, to a nose grind down the A-frame rail, a wallride off the Toyota Corolla, a huge tailslide on the top of the pyramid rail before blasting an ollie out of the shipping container over the car that pointed him straight to a backside flip onto the flatbed trucks where he eventually capped his run with a back lip down the last rail – an impressive run from top to bottom..

“This competition is gnarly, man!” Sheckler exploded. “It’s nerve racking just sitting up there and getting ready to go because you know you have to make it to the bottom. So, it’s a lot to think about but it is one of my favorite events. I really have a blast doing this! It seems crazy but it’s super fun.”

There was no question that Ryan Sheckler deserved his first place win.